Weekend finish and collecting!

I always love the first of the month, a new stitchery design from Kathy Schmitz and BOM's. I have been collecting some, but don't really have the time to do them all.

I have bags of lavender and decided it was time to make a couple of sachets to put in my wool boxes. I have some in already and when I open the wool it smells fresh, in the ones without, it is a bit musty smelling. I think lavender is the best for keeping the moths away and for the smell.

This is the design for this month, I kept it as is and simple, since they are going into boxes and won't be seen. They also worked up quickly, I actually finished the first and did the other and sewed them up after dinner.

This weekend was still a bit windy and on Saturday a chance of showers. I wasn't going to let that stop me, it was low tide and after a storm, the best time to beach comb. The bad thing was, it did rain for short periods, the wind was blowing us around and the tide was higher than usual, so I couldn't get to the rocks at the edge, without getting my feet drenched.

I did find some nice glass though, and lots of small rocks to play with. On Sunday we went for a ride and decided to walk along another beach. I found the perfect beach for small pebble rocks. The shoreline has several steep drop offs, so when the tide is out, there are piles of rocks, so I will definitely go back when it is warmer and I can pick through them better. I also found some small pieces of glass.

The first photo, upper left, has the small rocks and glass, as well as shells, I found on the second beach. The rocks to the right are from the first beach and below left is the glass I found on that beach, after the storm. Then I made up some small things for fun, to show you what you can do with them. Now I need to sit down and come up with some fun pictures to make with them.

A New Year, A New Quilt!

Even though I have a ton of unfinished projects I wanted to make something for me, just for fun. I started the Bible Quilt by Jan patek and got one block done. Seems to take me long to stitch with my stiff hands and my applique is pathetic, but I am enjoying the process, so imperfections are fine.

I am using older material that my friend sent me, but wondering if it is too thin for a quilt. I wanted it to look time work, so mixing up the blocks and if it seems too bright with the lighter fabrics, I can always tea stain it. The fabric I used on this one is the lightest, more of a yellowed white, but I wanted to lighten it, so you could see the fabrics in the appliqués.

No matter how much I measure and plan, my placements are always off, but that will just add to the naivette of it;) This will be a display piece so I am not too worried about it getting washed a lot, just so it hold together when I do.

I am using mostly homespuns and civil war type prints, so fun picking out colors for each piece. As  you can see, I make my circles by hand, so none are the same or perfectly round.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Years. Blessings to you and your families.

Blackbird Sings Stitchery!

I finally finished my blackbird stitchery, design by Kathy Schmitz. It was really fun to do but it is harder to do the large designs and keep them straight since my light box is not that big, so I had to trace it on my glass door.

I changed a few things, the berries were stitched, but I used wool. I also added a little stitching in the middle and the outside to tack it to the backing. It was way too bright for me, so I had to antique it, lol. The blues are not so bright, but hard to get all of the colors to show up nicely with a flash.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day! Bill has to work, so it might be a good day to get the baby quilt done. I was about to finish it and realized I didn't have anything that was big enough for the back and I wanted a nice solid piece for this. I got a nice flannel that is cream with splotches of pale yellow, so perfect for the backing.

I kept this photo larger so you can see the details, not sure if blogger allows large anymore. It seems they keep changing my photo options. The border has also been changed, instead of a larger border, I made mine smaller so it is a combination border/binding.